Dorm Room Shopping!

I hate the thought of Shae being in Virginia next year...SO far away from home, but I KNOW she will have the time of her life! One thing that is keeping me from being a complete basket case is shopping for her dorm room! It has been so fun figuring out what she will need and picking out fun, cute things too! She chose a color scheme very similar to the one she has at home.

I'm sure Scott doesn't "get it" but he certainly "gets ME", so he has said nothing. Nothing like "you realize we have to get all that stuff from California to Virginia." No worries! The New Kathy Von Zealand zebra print 3 piece luggage set (that Shae is getting for graduation from Gma and Papa) will come in handy!

It's my coping mechanism~and he's a smart guy!

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Grown Up Girl

I am not sure where the years have gone but I do know that I wouldn't trade one.single.day. being this girl's Mom for anything.

It's only for a moment you are mine to hold

The plans that heaven has for you

Will all too soon unfold

So many different prayers I'll pray

For all that you might do

But most of all I'll want to know

You're walking in the truth

And if I never told you

I want you to know

As I watch you grow

I pray that God would fill your heart with dreams

And faith gives you the courage

To dare to do great things

I'm here for you whatever this life brings

So let my love give you roots

And help you find your wings

May passion be the wind

That leads you through your days

And may conviction keep you strong

Guide you on your way

May there be many moments

That make your life so sweet

Oh, but more than memories

I pray that God would fill your heart with dreams

And that faith gives you the courage

To dare to do great things

It's not living if you don't reach for the sky

I'll have tears as you take off...

But I'll cheer as you fly!!

("Find Your Wings" By Mark Harris)

Photos by Roxi Mueller

Lindsay and "My Husband"

Lindsay is really really into Scott. The minute she gets off the bus and starts walking up our sidewalk I always say, "Lindsay, I am soooo glad you are home, I missed you" to which she replies, "Where's Daddy?"

She wants him to brush her teeth, fix her food, wipe her mouth...you name it, he does it "better". HE takes her to school every day too. One day I had to ride with them to go pick up my car and I had to sit in the back seat. When they got out , she told me to stay in the truck! Then when they walked away I heard her tell Scott, "Can you lock the door?"

She gets insanely jealous if I hug Scott in front of her and says, "get your hands off my Daddy". I kinda {love} that! It is so precious the way ALL my girls love him. He is a special man that God knew would make the best "girl Dad", especially for a "special needs girl".

Lindsay especially loves for Scott to tuck her into bed each night. The other night I tucked her in because Scott was flying. I read 3 books to her and told her stories about when she was a baby and how I was so happy when she was born with those perfect dark eyebrows. After we prayed as I was leaving her room she said, "Mommy, your husband tells the best stories!"

I can't begin to compete with him, and I don't even want to. How blessed I am to have this man to travel this journey with!

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Easter Break 2010

Last year we were at Disneyland with the Texas cousins!

This year we stayed home for Spring Break (thanks to our first Liberty University payment!). We managed to have a fun week. Luckily, Maeghan's family was in town this year too, so we had an extra daughter for most of the week, which makes Lindsay VERY happy!! (she taller than Maeghan all of a sudden too!)

Scott took us all to lunch at one of my favorite spots in Redding, Carnegie's. They have yummy sandwiches, soups and my VERY favorite thing, Apple, Bleu Cheese and Walnut Salad! (and Anna didn't want to be in the picture!!)

One day, Scott took the girls snowboarding at Mt. Shasta (about a 45 min. drive). Anna had never been and Shae had been maybe twice. Our kids haven't had much of an opportunity to learn to ski or snowboard because it's not like we could take the whole family. Having a sister like Lindsay has cost my other two girls a little bit in some areas, but they would BOTH say that she is worth ANYTHING they had to give up! Scott's schedule at camp is not always "family activity friendly" either.

Shae and Maeghan

Shae said she spent most of her time like this!! Maeghan and Scott had a great time snowboarding down the mountain though! Shae stayed and took some video of Anna taking her lesson and got a nice suntan on her face!

They had a nice day but Anna and Shae didn't really enjoy the snowboarding too much. Shae says it's just "not for her"...I couldn't agree more! I have decided the same thing after Scott and I went to Squaw Valley to "ski" one time. We almost got divorced right on the mountain! He is such a great skier that he picked snowboarding up like it was no big deal and thinks it is like that for everyone!!

While everyone went skiing, Lindsay and I had lunch at another delicious favorite salad place, Cheesecakes Unlimited. We eat there every Sunday after church, so I had trouble ordering Lindsay's salad without our favorite waitress, Stephanie there. She knows our order, down to the changes we ask for and everything!

After lunch, I burned off every.single.calorie taking Lindsay shopping for new clothes! I have always known what size she is and just got what she needed and brought it home but NONE of her clothes fit anymore so we had to move to the Juniors section and try on a zillion pairs of pants. Looks like she is a size 4. Oh how I hate pants with a low rise and a child who can't really pull them up in the back! We found some pants and shorts that come all the way up and bought all we could find!

Here is quite possibly the BEST thing that ever happened to a family with kids on a rainy day. A tent in the living room! Lindsay loved it, but every minute or so, she would shout out Maeghan's name until she would get in the tent too!

One of the saddest things about having only girls for a guy who LOVES to hunt is having only girls!!

Scott has this big list of "Things to do Before Shae Leaves My Home." One of those things is "shoot a gun/kill a turkey." Since the time is quickly approaching that she WILL BE gone, they decided to go out to Maeghan's grandpa's property and give it a try. Here they are at 5:45 am!

Scott and his posed hunting pictures! He has some of he and his brothers like this too!! Haha!

It was freezing cold and the wind was blowing sooooo hard. they didn't see much. Shae did get to see a turkey though!

And Scott got to cross "shoot a gun" off his list too!

I am not lying when I say the tent is the bomb dot com! Lindsay has spent most of the week in it. Anna had it fixed so cute and cozy, but Lindsay is a destruction derby so it didn't last long! Looks innocent enough, right?

Well, here is the whole picture! Sheesh, guess who will be folding all those blankets!?

Hope your Easter break was wonderful and you felt the presence of our wonderful Saviour during this season we remember his "unspeakable gift" to us!

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A Little Facelift

I have needed to give my room a little face lift for some time now. I have really {loved} my comforter and curtains, but they have served their time...I got the bedding at the Ralph Lauren outlet here in town and had the curtains made. But, I have had this since Shae was 2, she is 17 now! Time for a change!

Here is the before of my bedding and curtains. My bathroom had little valances made out of the same floral fabric shown here. (this was the only picture I could find of" before", I guess there was "school" going on in this picture).

Here is the "after". We were planning to paint the same color we used in Anna's room but since Scott had a broken pipe and HUGE flood at The Inn at camp MY RENOVATIONS have taken a back seat for now. I was going to wait to put everything in but who knows when we will get to painting now that the summer camp season is drawing near.

I know it is really white but I just.love.it! So fresh and clean!

I just got the curtains at Ikea recently. I saw them back in December and when we went to buy them-out of stock until JULY! Just MY luck! They had the same ones in brown and charcoal grey but no white! Good thing I am obnoxious and asked a 3rd Ikea worker about them, she remembered that 2 sets of white had been returned just an hour before! WooHoo!

They are called "Anita" and they are so thick and beautiful. They are embossed with flowers and are a zillion inches long! Only $29.99 for a PAIR! Unheard of I tell ya!

I would LOVE some ideas on what to put on my walls...sheesh! Talk about boring! Having them a darker color will help, but I still need to find something to hang up!

I got this precious, fluffy, luxurious blanket at Ikea too. It has been waiting forever to get off the shelf in my closet and make its debut! Another $29.99 Ikea purchase that looks much more expensive. I would LOVE to find a big, fluffy chair to go in the corner, but until I do This wooden swivel chair will do. It is from Treasure Island in Lynchburg and holds many many memories for Scott of "two a days" football practices!

This is looking into my bathroom. I took the blue and white valances down and now need to find a solution. Scott recently put Travertine tile in and it looks gorgeous! I long for shutters, but I think I will have to save up for a while. I am considering Roman shades too. I will post more of the bathroom later...I need some help in there too!

Last but not least, meet my new "chandy"....isn't she divine? Guess where she came from? Yep, good 'ole Ikea. We had a can light there and so Scott had to do some fancy rigging to get her to work. He even put her on a dimmer. We have a TV in our bathroom so we already have to take a number to get a time slot, this could be trouble!

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Happy Easter

Happy Easter from California!

Today we had church (3 services) at the convention center! We attended the second one and it was packed! Neighborhood Church did an amazing job putting it all together and even provided a little gift pack for the kids with a coloring poster, markers and candy for during the service. Hundreds of decisions for salvation were made after weeks of our church family praying for people BY NAME. What a Saviour, what an honor to be a part of His family and what a BLESSING to attend a church like ours!

Today it was 48 degrees on our way home from church! The rain began pouring like I have NEVER seen and it was soooo windy! Not to mention the earthquake south of us!

"But I know that MY REDEEMER lives, and that He will stand upon the earth at last."

Job 19:25

While Shae and I were in TJMaxx a few weeks ago, we got a phone call from Anna telling us that she and Lindsay were going on a little airplane ride with Dad. I was a little apprehensive because Lindsay had never been in Scott's plane. Her idea of a plane ride involves a flight attendant, soda, pretzels and her DVD player!!

Anna sat with her in the back and she did fine! Scott said he would ask her, "You doing okay Linny?" and she would say "yeah" real quick. She was all business. She kept the headphones on and sat perfectly still too!

Anna said she loved looking out the window. When they got back I asked if it was fun she said, "well, there wasn't any soda or pretzels." She also said that her tummy felt a little sick. She has a tendency to get car sick every once in a while, so I imagine that is what happened. Being visually impaired is what does it, I am sure. She had a great time though, and we have crossed another milestone with her!!

Softball is in full swing. Anna and 2 other 5th graders were asked to play on the Jr. High Softball team, so she has had quite a busy schedule with practice or a game every day!

This is the view from the inside viewing area/snack bar.

This week they played at the "Field of Dreams" here in Redding. It is a HUGE softball complex with batting cages, sand volleyball courts and 3 "stadiums". Anna's game was at Fenway Park!

See those "guys" in the background? They aren't real! It is amazing how authentic this place is. There are people painted all around as if the stands are full. One time Scott was going to play on Brad's men's league team and when we walked in he said. "you have to be kidding me, ALL THOSE PEOPLE are here to watch this??" It was so funny when he realized that the "people" weren't real!

Here is the little right fielder ready for action.

Anna and Tatum (another 5th grader) usually warm the bench until they have a pretty good lead, but the experience of playing with the big girls will pay off when they are the big kids!

I had to bring Lindsay with me because Scott was at Shae's track meet an hour away. She had a hamburger on the way to the game, but for some reason she wanted to eat the entire time! She kept asking me, "what else do you have, Mommy?" Them she found out there was a snack bar...Cha-Ching! $3.50 for a pretzel smaller than the ones at Target. Next time I will be "packing" that is for sure!!

It was pretty chilly the whole game, but all of a sudden it got windy and the temperature dropped to 45 degrees! Brrrrrr. Lindsay and I finished watching the game from the warm snack bar...my eyes were so watery and we were FREEZING!

April 1st was exciting day for Shae, her room assignment and roommates' names were posted to her account at Liberty!

Dorm 19, room 216!! My 2 best friends were on that floor! I was in the dorm next door. She will be tromping the same ground I did when I was a college girl!

We have a lot to look forward to, we covet your prayers as she enters this new chapter of her life.

"You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me *O God! They are innumerable! I can't count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up in the morning, you are still with me!"

Psalm 139:16-18 (New Living Translation)

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